The little plastic bags of joy that some dog walkers choose to leave on fence posts or hanging in trees for everyone to enjoy are just horrible. What can spoil a walk for me is people who talk constantly whilst walking, normally about themselves whilst ignoring the beauty around them. A couple of years ago @Lullabelle and I were strolling along Stannage Edge in the Peak District, and we were slowly caught up by a couple of women. One of them never paused for breath - he said, then she said, then I did, and she was like..... . In the end we had to stop and let them past, the talker never looked up from her feet, and her companion carried the pained and exhausted expression of someone whose ears were being worn out. For me, the pleasure of a hill walk is not just the scenery, it's the solitude, and the removal of human noise pollution with the replacement by sounds of birdsong, the breeze and running water. Or am I just being an old git?
Youths on scrambling motorbikes.....I hate the noise. I hate the damage they do. I used to come across them a lot when we stayed, on a regular basis, just outside Hawes a few years ago.
Ah yes, the use of green roads by motorcyclists. I think it's the law that they have to remove the baffles from the exhaut first so they can be heard from at least five miles away.
My son. He is incapable of shutting up. Love him to bits, but by the end of a walk I could strangle him....
Crowds on popular walks. I actively avoid places like Snowdon except by obscure cwm's but eventually you have to join the press to the top.
Farmers that put a solitary mad bull in every feild they own with a public footpath across it. Hate checking over a style to see a flock of sheep only to find the aforementioned bull staring at me when I am quarter of the way across.
I vaguely remembered reading something about this a while ago, so decided to practise some Google-Foo and came across this: Section 59 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 bans the keeping of bulls in fields crossed by a right of way, unless they are under the age of 10 months or not of a recognised dairy breed, provided they’re accompanied by cows or heifers (young female cows). Recognised dairy breeds are Ayrshire, British Friesian, British Holstein, Dairy Shorthorn, Guernsey, Jersey and Kerry. The HSE, Police, and/or Highways Authority can and should be notified if you come across it occuring (provided you know the differernce between Dairy and Beef cattle)
Whilst walking in Coed y Brenin recently, we came across a group of scramblers trying to come up a path that had been mostly washed away in heavy rains and had warning signs for walkers to be careful. We had kids with us and it was extremely dangerous as the bikes tried to scrabble for grip on the rocks and were slewing all over the place. We were extremely annoyed, as they shouldn’t have been using the path, but karma came when the last one, on what he told us was a brand new bike on its first outing, lost control, wheelied and the bike came crashing down, very broken bike and bits everywhere. We checked he wasn’t hurt, as wouldn’t be human to just leave him, which miraculously he wasn’t, but as for helping him lift the bike, etc, not a chance!!
